Amazon's Bezos to buy Washington Post for $250 million

Updated 2:48 pm, Monday, August 5, 2013

The Washington Post announced Monday the newspaper will be sold to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. (EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP/Getty Images)

The Washington Post announced Monday the newspaper will be sold to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. (EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP/Getty Images)

Amazon's Bezos to buy Washington Post for $250 million

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Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey Bezos will buy The Washington Post after four generations of Graham family ownership, the Washington Post announced Monday.

Bezos will pay $250 million in cash to acquire The Post and its affiliates, including other newspapers and businesses. Bezos 49, has never owned a newspaper.

Amazon will not have any part in the purchase as a company.

The sale will likely be finalized in the next 60 days, according to The Post.

The news stunned most at The Post, who had no idea a sale was being considered.

The newspaper is suffering the same financial struggles as most newspapers in the digital age, The Post reported.

"Every member of my family started out with the same emotion — shock — in even thinking about" selling The Post, said Donald Graham, the Post Company's chief executive, on Monday. "But when the idea of a transaction with Jeff Bezos came up, it altered my feelings."

Graham went on to say that The Post could have survived under the company's current ownership, but he wanted the paper to have a greater chance of success.

The operating revenue of the Washington Post Company's newspaper division has declined 44 percent in the past six years, The Post reported. Its print circulation dropped 7 percent the first half of this year alone.

Locally, it sold The Herald of Everett, north of Seattle, to Sound Publishing in February.

Bezos beat out five other contenders for the company.

In a Post interview, he said the he will maintain the news organization's values.

"I don't want to imply that I have a worked-out plan," he said. "This will be uncharted terrain and it will require experimentation."

Post Publisher Kathering Weymouth will remain at the helm and said Bezos' business smarts made him an outstanding candidate as a buyer, The Post reported.

"He's everything we were looking for — a business leader with a track record of entrepreneurship who believes in our values and cares about journalism, and someone who was willing to pay a fair price to our shareholders," she said.

No layoffs are expected of any of the paper's 2,000 employees.

Bezos will remain a Seattle resident.

In a letter to Post employees, Bezos did not hint at his motivations for buying the paper, but indicated that the internet will require the Post to innovate and adapt to changes in news delivery.

But its mission will remain the same.

"The paper's duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners," he wrote. "We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we'll work hard not to make mistakes. When we do, we will own up to them quickly and completely."